Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the ICSA and Macra na Feirme for their presentations. I congratulate Mr. Finan on his election as president of Macra na Feirme. The presentations speak for themselves. When the Minister was negotiating the CAP, he brought in an unnecessarily restrictive definition of a young farmer. He said there was not only an age requirement but also a restriction based on when one had entered farming. As has been pointed out, a farmer could be disqualified at 23 years of age and be eligible at 39 years of age. The Minister's explanation was that he wanted young farmer provisions to be mandatory across all member states. I suggest that it might have been better for the Minister to allow each country the flexibility to provide its own definition of a young farmer, and leave each country make up their minds on what it did or did not want to do for young farmers. The whole CAP was characterised by much more national confidence. I have no doubt that in reality all countries would have activated a young farmer provision even had it not been mandatory. I cannot see any country that would have passed it over.

I believe we can all support what was said about priority access for all young farmers under 40 to the average rate of basic payment plus greening. The Department needs to be pressed on how to get there. I understand that the Department considers the old young farmers to comprise a disadvantaged group. Therefore, although they are not officially young farmers, we can get them through by calling them disadvantaged. I do not know why the Department could not call young farmers super-disadvantaged. Has Macra any idea of the potential cost of this? Presumably some old young farmers, or forgotten farmers, have quite decent entitlements. Sometimes when people are making a case they think it is important to picture it as very expensive. Sometimes I believe that it might be useful if it was not so expensive because it would be easier to fund. I wonder if we could find out? I believe it is important that we do this and that we fund it. The mechanisms are there if the will is there to do it.

I fully agree with the points raised on capital investment. When young farmers get into farming it is hard for them to have the ready cash because they have not had years of opportunity to build up reserves. The temptation is to go to the bank to borrow excessive amounts, which puts the farm regime under pressure. I believe the Minister should make the simple decision that all farmers under the age of 40 should get the grant at the 60% rate. The Minister needs to go to Europe to make the case that Europe should not be short-changing young farmers and that young farmers are those who are chronologically young, not just farmers who have entered into farming in the last five years. I support the two points made and I think something should happen. I hope the committee sees itself as being in a position to support the clear-cut case put here, and I believe the costs would be quite modest.